as we know it has changed and is shifting at breakneck speed. The challenges are immense that face us all. God is doing things we never imagined. But rather than jointly pursuing the transcendent glory of God’s truth, linking arms with fellow believers, and standing together to defend the faith once delivered to all the saints, we’ve become small-minded, opinionated, prideful, and petty.
Cloaked in a façade of “theological disagreement” and convincing ourselves that we're “defending the truth,” evangelicalism has surrendered the theological high ground for the miry pits of a self-righteous argumentative spirit. Social media has become nothing more than the clothesline for the evangelical dirty laundry of our quarrels and back-biting, giving the lost world even more reasons to reject the Shepherd because of the behavior of his sheep.
We’ve abandoned godly intellectual discourse for spiteful attitudes reduced to name-calling and character-destroying tactics. We’ve sequestered ourselves into camps and cliques, demonstrating that divisiveness is of greater value than the unity for which our Lord prayed. We’ve thrown away the succulent fruit of humility, love, kindness, and peace, choosing instead to feast upon rotten imitations that feed our self-righteous individualism. We’ve erected walls and rifts within the family of God that only repentance and forgiveness can tear down.
Doctrine is always worth debating and truth worth defending. But over-spiritualizing our opinions leads to pettiness and has no place in the household of God. A wise person can always differentiate between petty arguments and worthy debates (Prov 10:19; 11:12; 17:27). Remember the instruction of Scripture to set aside our differences in order to work together for the sake of the gospel (2 Tim 2:23; 1 Cor 1:10; 11:18; Phil 1:27). Any church, ministry, or institution that abandons this command is not worthy of the name.
When those we used to call “friends” become our enemies, it’s time we reevaluate our personal walk with Christ, repent of our sin, seek God's forgiveness, and extend forgiveness to our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Please accept my most sincere apology and forgive me for any part I have ever played in this infighting. We are better than this, brothers and sisters. We have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and placed into the kingdom of light—act like it.
Some of you will go on about your business, but to those with open ears, as a fellow-laborer, I implore you to abandon these petty strategies for the sake of the gospel. If we’re going to show ourselves to be fools, be fools for the sake of the cross!
by Dustin Benge
Associate Professor of Biblical Spirituality and Historical Theology
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
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